Harrow the Ninth

by Tamsyn Muir

eBook, 512 pages

English language

Published Aug. 7, 2020 by Doherty Associates, LLC, Tom.

ISBN:: 978-1-250-31320-1

(121 reviews)

After rocking the cosmos with her deathly debut, Tamsyn Muir continues the story of the penumbral Ninth House in Harrow the Ninth, a mind-twisting puzzle box of mystery, murder, magic, and mayhem. Nothing is as it seems in the halls of the Emperor, and the fate of the galaxy rests on one woman's shoulders.

Harrowhark Nonagesimus, last necromancer of the Ninth House, has been drafted by her Emperor to fight an unwinnable war. Side-by-side with a detested rival, Harrow must perfect her skills and become an angel of undeath ― but her health is failing, her sword makes her nauseous, and even her mind is threatening to betray her.

Sealed in the gothic gloom of the Emperor's Mithraeum with three unfriendly teachers, hunted by the mad ghost of a murdered planet, Harrow must confront two unwelcome questions: is somebody trying to kill her? And if they succeeded, would the universe …

7 editions

Courts reviewed Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir (The Locked Tomb, #2)

What is Going On?

5 stars

If you couldn't quite follow the events in Gideon the Ninth and found the book confusing, this one is definitely not for you.

Harrow the Ninth continues the Locked Tomb series where Gideon the Ninth left off. It is a complete mindfuck however (excuse my language) and with every page I was delightedly wondering "ok, what unexpected event or information will come next?"

If you liked the first one, this continuation will make you like the series even more.

MazzaB1 reviewed Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir (The Locked Tomb Trilogy)

Review of 'Harrow the Ninth' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

My mind is blown. BLOWN.
I will say it’s helpful to pay close attention to all of the minor details in the book because they do matter!!

This is a WILD ride

Esther reviewed Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir (The Locked Tomb Trilogy)

Madness and grief

4 stars

I never expected a book to successfully gaslight me and I would have expected even less that I would enjoy that.

This book manages not only to describe someones descent into madness from intense grief but it makes you feel it yourself. It fractured so many things you thought you knew from the previous book that you constantly doubt your own memory of those past event, but brings everything together towards the end only to leave you with questions again.

It is also repeatedly hilarious and features one of the best dad jokes of all time.

Druidan reviewed Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir (The Locked Tomb, #2)

Harrow the Ninth – Review

5 stars

This series does not give up its secrets easily. It holds them closely and tightly like a squirrel with its nuts. I was left at the end of the last book with a lot of questions, and really pressing plot developments that I needed answers to, and “Harrow the Ninth“ wasn’t going to give them to me lightly. The book does its best from the get-go to upend your sense of reality, attacking your memories of what exactly happened in the first book. It does this both in story content - it directly contradicts events as you remember them from book one - but also in the narration. style. I can’t say that I have ever read another book that spends this much time in the second person. It took me quite a while to get used to it, as I typically despise second person, but once I did it won me over. It’s use emphasized the tone, and set up some surprising reveals in the last act. I don’t want to say too much aside from the fact that all of the strangeness and confusion is worth it for those big reveals, and I recommend sticking with the book through it. It is worth the ride. The story follows Harrow in both the present and past, with the past reliving events from the first book from a different angle and with those big inconsistencies, while the present focuses on her experiences with the Emperor and the other Lictors, as she learns more about the truth of the state of the empire, and her role in it. The book is full of interesting world building, conflicting personalities, mysteries, and occasional flashes of action and violence that are thoroughly satisfying to read. I personally would not say that I like this one better than the first, because I missed some of the characters I liked from that first book, but this is very easily a worthy successor that does very interesting things with its narration, and it is a strong recommendation from me.

Mickey reviewed Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir (The Locked Tomb Trilogy)

Review of 'Harrow the Ninth' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

4/5

I must say that I didn’t love this one as much as I loved Gideon, it was a crazy mess of different timelines, weird perspectives and false memories. There were pieces I felt I understood where it was going at least and others I had no idea what their meaning was at all.

It did come together in the end which was cool and did leave even more questions for the future. Though I’m not sure I love where it’s going? I liked the low scale necromancy a lot more than the multi-world scale it seems to be taking off into, but I will see how the next book goes.

Overall I did enjoy it, despite it trying a little too hard to obscure its own story. It was certainly not an easy read but it took a lot of skill to make a book this confusing and yet …

Itzayana reviewed Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir (The Locked Tomb, #2)

Even better the second time

5 stars

Amazing. During my second read through I started to question if I had ever read this book once. There's so much going on here that multiple reads is a must.

no <3 reviewed Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir (The Locked Tomb Trilogy)

Review of 'Harrow the Ninth' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

April 9th, 2023
Makes a lot more sense the second time round

December 9th, 2022:
From an enjoyment standpoint, the plot is poorly paced and confusing, but from an artistic standpoint, it makes perfect sense. The slow, disjointed feel of the first 60% or so makes the reader understand Harrow's dissociation. All of a sudden it makes sense when certain events that I shan't speak of occur and Harrow is jolted back into a version of sanity.
It's a rather violent book (not my usual taste) but that factor can be ignored when you focus on the genius of everything else.

Niko Reads Things reviewed Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir (The Locked Tomb Trilogy)

Review of 'Harrow the Ninth' on 'Storygraph'

No rating

I managed to read 16% of this book because I’m deeply masochistic. I managed to stop reading this book because I realized that I love myself I’m too old to struggle through obtuse writing, waiting for an actual plot to kick in.

Adamgv@book.dansmonorage.blue reviewed Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir (The Locked Tomb, #2)

“Good Soup”

4 stars

It’s like if David Lynch wrote lesbian sci-fi fan fiction and I love it.

Sergio reviewed Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir (The Locked Tomb Trilogy)

Review of 'Harrow the Ninth' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

To me, this book feels like Muir wrote 3 books in-between Gideon and this, that's how much more confident this one's structure and writing feels. Whereas Gideon felt experimental and somewhat messy (in the most generous reading of those words possible), requiring me to commit more effort than I'm used to to pull me through it at times, this one had me hooked from the start, excellently paced, spinning threads that felt convoluted without requiring me to re-read fragments to make sure I'd understood what had just happened, and with a explosive last third or so that made me stay up at night reading through to the end. Loved it and can't wait to see where the series goes next.

Sep 2022 reread: yep still great. Onto Nona!

jess reviewed Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir (The Locked Tomb, #2)

Review of 'Harrow the Ninth' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

i read shakespeare for fun and this book was so confusing it took me six weeks to read. worth it tho… i think.

tastytea reviewed Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir (The Locked Tomb, #2)

I didn't like it, but I liked it

4 stars

The first two thirds slightly annoyed me, in the last third it finally made some sense. Would have given this 3 stars if not for the very unexpected dad joke. 😄

marksutherland reviewed Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir (The Locked Tomb Trilogy)

Review of 'Harrow the Ninth' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

I spent the first third of the book confused about what was going on, the second third putting some of the clues together and the third getting a whole other bunch of questions to ponder. This is not a complacent sequel or rehash, it builds on Gideon while telling it's own story, with some glorious soap opera moments and dad jokes throughout. So good I'm probably going to reread Gideon now to see what I missed.